Because of their effectiveness and ease of use, fiberoptic illumination systems have become widely used in medical examination devices such as otoscopes, skin surface microscopes, and the like. The fiberoptic light bundles used in such systems are able to provide bright illumination over considerable distances because light is transmitted through the fiber bundles using the highly efficient process of internal reflection. Such fiberoptic light bundles also have a flexibility which makes them easy to manipulate and steer, properties which are particularly important in instruments such as endoscopes which are used inside a patient's body.
Because of the wide variety of applications in which fiberoptic light bundles are used, they are made in a wide range of sizes such as, for example, 2.5 to 12.5 mm. In addition to being made in different sizes, fiberoptic light bundles are manufactured with a variety of different types of fiberoptic connectors.
Existing adapters allow light boxes to be used with different sizes and types of fiber optic connectors. One type of such adapter, referred to as "universal" adapters (sometimes referred to as nose adapters), such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,934 (Feinbloom), U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,523 (Feinbloom) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,826 (Wood et al). include a housing attached to the front panel of the light box and includes an opening which allows a single male fiber optic connector to be inserted and removed. The adapter opening can be adjusted to allow fiber light bundles of different sizes to be connected to the contained light source.
Another type of light box adapter is a rotatable turret assembly having a plurality of female connectors of different sizes, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,017 (Auer) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,723 (Cuda), among others. Being rotatable, the turret assembly allows a specific fiber light bundle to be coupled to a female connector and selectively indexed into alignment with the contained light source.
A constraint using either adapter is that some light sources have a light output which is sufficient to degrade conventional fiber bundles. To that end, there is a general desire to be able to couple illumination fiber bundles to a high output light box without degradation of the coupled fiber bundles.